ECKSTEIN RACING TOWARDS A PERFECT SERIES

February 5: Shannon Eckstein will step up his bid to go through the Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Ironman Series undefeated when he contests rounds three and four on the Sunshine Coast tomorrow and Sunday.

Eckstein won the opening two rounds at Kurrawa three weeks ago and has his sights on matching that effort at Alexandra Headland this weekend before heading to the final at North Cronulla on February 21.

There will be no perfect series in the hotly-contested Ironwoman events, where Alicia Marriott and Hayley Bateup split the honours in rounds one and two, and the winners of this weekend's women's races are much harder to pick than in the men's where Eckstein looks dominant.

No athlete has made it through a Nutri-Grain series undefeated but the defending champion from Northcliffe gives himself a good chance of making history.

"I definitely think it's possible," he said at a press conference today.

"Last year I had three wins, a second and a third and I was in a position to win in each of those races.

"It's a matter of putting yourself in with a chance of winning every race and hoping things work out."

Eckstein probably faces his biggest challenge from the Sunshine Coast competitors, who are banking on vociferous home-town support, as well as fellow Gold Coasters Hugh Dougherty (Tugun) and Ky Hurst (Kurrawa), who are second and third in the series pointscore.

Mooloolaba's Matt Poole won a Sunshine Coast round of the Nutri-Grain series last year and is hopeful of repeating that effort but acknowledges Eckstein is the man to beat.

"Shannon is looking pretty fit and fast," he said. "About the only thing I've got him on is height so I hope he doesn't have a sudden growth spurt.

"The support we get here is immense. All the nippers love it when we race on the Sunshine Coast and they all come to the beach and scream their lungs out for us."

After the first two rounds, Eckstein leads the men's series on 40 points, ahead of Dougherty on 38, Hurst 36 and Poole 32.

In the women's series, Marriott (Mooloolaba) and Bateup (Kurrawa) will resume their growing rivalry that goes back to last October's Coolangatta Gold.

On that occasion, Marriott upset Bateup's bid for three consecutive victories and then won round one of the Nutri-Grain series at Kurrawa.

Bateup, at 30 the oldest competitor in the series, came out and proved age doesn't matter by winning round two narrowly from Kristyl Smith (Northcliffe) and Marriott.

The winners of the weekend's women's races could be any of about six or seven top-class Ironwomen.

Smith, defending champion Naomi Flood (Manly), Northcliffe's Elizabeth Pluimers and Rebecca Creedy (Metropolitan Caloundra) will all be pushing for their first win of the 2010 series.

Marriott leads the women's pointscore on 38 points from Bateup and Smith together on 37, Flood 35 and Pluimers 33.

Tomorrow's third round will be raced in a sprint format and round four on Sunday is an ‘Athletes Choice' round involving two tradition Ironman races with a time limit for competitors to qualify for the second race.